30 Great Places to Work 2018

Global Relay: Messaging and Archiving Solutions for Compliance

CIO Bulletin

December 2018

As more and more assortments enter the corporate world, it is becoming more difficult to maintain compliance. But what goes unnoticed often is that at the end of the day compliance contributes to a company’s financial bottom-line. This connection is crucial and compliance as an industry is rising fast. One company which has been trusted by many across the world for compliance solutions is Vancouver based- Global Relay.

Global Relay started at a time when the world was still simpler and data did not invade all areas of life. Internet was still making inroads into the corporate world and was just starting out in the industries everywhere else. When the company was founded by Warren Roy in 1999, he unintentionally created what can be thought of now, as one of the first cloud computing services.

The company started its journey by innovating in email archiving. It offered email archiving as a service at a time when few others did. But since then, the world has changed rapidly. New methods of communications have come to the fore with time and moreover, the data volumes have multiplied and increased exponentially which has raised the need for regulations and corporate governance. Global Relay has been there all this time innovating through management, control and ensuring data compliance.

Employees all over the world use various platforms to communicate and talk to their colleagues, customers, and clients. The data exchanged between two people in such instances can be often of critical nature which is often pivotal for any organization to keep running efficiently. With over 400 employees working for the company and over 23,000 customers spread out over 90 countries, Global Relay has excelled in helping organizations manage and control their communications data since 1999. And that is why the financial services and other regulated industries have repeatedly chosen Global Relay for messaging and archiving compliance.

Leading from the front

Warren Roy, CEO, and Founder of Global Relay

Mr. Roy is a seasoned entrepreneur in Information Technology. He has worked in architecture, engineering and construction industries when the transition was happening towards Computer-Aided Design (CAD). He founded Global Relay in 1999 which was one of the first hosted email archiving services. This made it Global Relay one of the very first in the cloud. His vision has always been to build great technology that could redefine communication and the way world leverages data.

Mr. Roy is a celebrated CEO who has been recognized multiple times for his leadership. He was recognized as the BC CEO of the year by Business in Vancouver Magazine in 2012. He was also presented the BCTIA Person of the year in 2013 for his work pertaining to BC technology community. He was also named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year in 2013 for the B2B Products and Service Category for the Pacific Region.

Working with American Portfolios Financial Services Inc.

Based out of Holbrook, New York, American Portfolio Financial Services is a big name in the financial services industry in the USA. Being a broker-dealer that is FINRA-registered, it is of utmost importance that American Portfolios had the best communications (FINRA and SEC regulated) and a good message management that could boast of litigation readiness. But the company had poor archiving and surveillance solutions that required replacement. The existing system in place caused delays that lasted more than a minute and the searches were very slow. The company, therefore, was looking for a new system. After a rigorous search, the company decided to place their faith on Global Relay.

“Between the key players at American Portfolios and the training and provisioning teams at Global Relay, the communication and execution of the Global Relay Archive implementation project was 99.999% flawless.”

- John Rodriguez Systems Manager American Portfolios

Global Relay used its solutions to resolve these issues. The results were remarkable. The costs were reduced by almost 50% for American Portfolios. The employees of the company could now use the system without the need for IT intervention in a seamless manner. Moreover, the feedback from the company’s employees and 1,200 affiliated advisors came out positive. This was reflective of Global Relay Archive’s great performance and flexibility.

“Switching to Global Relay has given us more confidence when faced with audit questions. The reports are clear and explainable. Being able to demonstrate that to an auditor puts us in a much stronger position than we’ve been in before.”

Awards

- Canada’s Best Managed Companies 2013, 2014

- Best Companies to work for in British Columbia 2011, 2012

- BC Business’ Most Innovative Companies 2013

- BCTIA Community Engagement Award for 2013

- ITAC Ingenious Award for 2014

- The City of Vancouver’s Award of Excellence for Business Innovation for 2014. Found a spot in Deloitte’s Fast 50/500 list for 2018